You're off to a new home in a brand new place! A new adventure, a new start, and a new list of things to get done — hopefully within a week or two of moving. For all of you organizational junkies, time to get rolling! For those not as adept in the art of binders and dividers, here's a checklist to get you started.
In preparation for moving day:
• Collect all of your medical and dental records in a folder and take them with you to your new location. Or, notify your current offices that you will be requesting them via fax from your new doctor's and dentist's offices.
• Start throwing things away or donating! Do you really need to hold on to all of those old college books that you'll most likely never crack open again? Sell, donate, or toss anything that you don't need and will weigh down your moving boxes.
• If you have kids, get their school records all sorted and ready to transfer to new schools. For high school aged kids especially, this is an important part of setting their schedule for the next year.
• Prepare to disconnect or transfer any services. For water, gas, other utilities and land-line phones, set your end date as one day after you move. For cable and internet, request a transfer if possible, or research companies that provide service in your new area.
• Set up a mail transfer with the post office and notify any magazines or newspapers of your transfer or cancellation.
• Transfer or close bank accounts/credit union accounts.
• Take a general inventory of all items being moved.
• Dispose of any flammables that moving companies will not carry: paints, kerosene, certain cleaning products and even perfumes that you do not wish to haul yourself.
• Confirm any travel arrangements or hotel reservations for your move. Communicate with the representative for your future residence and make sure that you will be able to enter the building when you arrive.
• Designate a "private" room that movers will not enter. Aside from storing your items for travel and personal necessities, it's also nice to have a place to hide when you need a moment away from the packing/moving caos.
• Prepare all directions and contact information for movers, and get their crew chief's information in return. Communication is key!
Day of move or day after:
• Confirm water, electric or gas shut off/transfer if necessary, and turn of all faucets, lights, thermostats and air conditioners.
• Run a last check of the basement, attic, garage, sheds or closets to make sure you haven't missed anything!
• Lock all windows and doors and notify neighbors or building managers of your departure.
After you're in your new home:
• Clean! If the previous owners or management company did not order a full clean (they should have), hire a cleaning company to do a deep clean or put on those rubber gloves and do it yourself.
• Contact your insurance and credit card companies to move or change coverage, and look for local bank branches to set up a new account if necessary.
• Search for a new healthcare and dental provider by asking around or doing a quick search on the internet, and have your records transferred. Note all emergency rooms in the area.
• If you have kids, visit their new school and deliver class and shot records.
• Make an appointment to restart your cable, internet and/or phone service with the local company or to transfer service with your previous provider if possible.
• If you have pets, research vets and emergency veterinary rooms in the area. Obtain a pet license from the local city government.
• Unpack and inventory any broken or damaged items for insurance purposes and contact the moving company if there is proof of negligence.
Am I missing something? Let us know your suggestions!
(Image: Shutterstock)
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One thing I did is label every box with a letter of the alphabet. You could also just number them. Weeks before the actual move, I started packing small and non-essential items into the boxes, and noted what was going into every box in a MS Word Document. That way I wasn't limited to grouping and labeling boxed items by room, but by level of immediate need and similar fragility, or for optimum weight distribution.
So when I moved into my new house, I could easily access items as I was ready to use them or "populate" a particular space. I could easily search the document on my laptop to find that "large frying pan" as in "Box G," for instance. I didn't have to unpack the entire kitchen or bathroom to get in the moving day's meal or shower, for instance.
It may sound overwhelming, but I thought it was a good system because it made me examine the need for every item as I packed it. I ended up donating or selling a lot on my way out. It's also a really flexible system, as your box content lists could be as generic as "art supplies" to as specific as listing every individual item.
Also, if you're just moving across town and not to a brand new city or further, consider renting a storage locker unit geographically between your new place and your old one!
This allows you to begin moving small non-essential items out of your house in small trips at your convenience. Save "moving day" for large items like furniture and appliances/electronics, and pick up your small items later as you need them.
As an added bonus, many storage companies offer the free use of a truck that you can reserve for you big items/move-in day!
This is a great list, but the title made me think of Ex-Lax. ;P
Check with the moving company to see what they won't move - especially if they're doing the packing. I had to give away any open food items, any home-canned goods, light bulbs, batteries, candles, nail polish and remover and aerosol products.
One thing I always do when packing is to pack the "essentials" box. It's the last thing loaded on to the truck and the first thing unloaded.
It has a roll of TP, a sponge, some sort of basic cleaner, a box of bandaids, aspirin, a couple of lightbulbs, a roll of paper towels*, a shower curtain, a few snacks (like protein bars and dried fruit), a utility knife, something really easy to cook (like pasta and a jar of sauce) and paper plates* and plastic forks and spoons, and clean sheets for the bed.
Even if you are completely overwhelmed by the chaos in your new place, you can make the bed and have something to eat. I always consider it a good move when I can make the first meal in the new apartment and end the day between clean sheets.
*I don't usually use disposable paper products like these, but when you are moving, they solve a lot of problems.
When packing boxes, I usually use a sharpie to write the contents of the box on it directly as I pack. It helps for when you unpack and need to know where to pack like items (bathroom boxes in the bathroom, for example), but also for the end of packing when you're putting miscellaneous items into any box that can hold them. So a box from the living room might read "DVDs, remotes, photos, and gnome figurine." Means I'm not combing through boxes for my remotes! And since I reuse the boxes, I try and put everything into the same box for the next move (I move about once a year for work), and I can scratch out and re-write if need be.
What also helps me, like what @Xarcady mentioned above, is packing absolute essentials that I'll need immediately after unloading the moving truck. First thing I do when packing is to put all the essentials into a suitcase over the course of a week as I go through routines. It's the best way to realize you need to set aside toilet paper or contact solution or an extra phone charger and other essentials. Putting it in a suitcase makes it easily identifiable when you've got dozens of lookalike boxes.
If at all possible, do the deep clean of your new place BEFORE moving day. It's much easier to clean if the place is empty and you can start unpacking the second you get to the new place.
I've moved more than 40 times (military brat, and then in myself), I second the "essential box" of stuff you'll need right away, toilet paper, sheets, etc. but I would also recommend a box that you put all the pieces and parts that are the result of disassembling furniture, label zip lock backs and put all hardware for items (beds, bookcases, etc) in them, put in a box that is painted or magic markered some bizarre color so you can find it in the brown sea at the other end, include basic tools, hammers, multiple screw drivers, ratchets, etc. That way you'll have the box you need to start putting things back together.
I love the way the post mentions 'the movers'. I've moved dozens of times but only once had movers. Before that it's always been U-Haul or a borrowed truck or two.
One three occasions I've moved to places within walking distance. The first time, we carried everything up the road - no vehicles at all. The second time, I used a skateboard to move furniture and the third time, we used two cars, one sports car (not much room inside) and one saloon car.
I move frequently, so tend to hold onto my boxes between moves to prevent the mad dash around town for more. But they get so marked up, it can be hard to tell what's what after a few moves. Enter large white mailing stickers!
I write a standard three line description on each sticker: 1) My last name 2) the room the box goes to in the new location and 3) brief box contents run down. I add "FRAGILE" if needed. I place the sticker in a uniform place on each box to keep it easy.
I just tell the movers to read the second line if I'm not around to direct them to the proper room (but they often don't do this anyway, so be prepared to lug a few boxes within the house). To save some time, you can even run the stickers through your printer to print out your name and room name so all you have to write is the box contents description as you pack.
If moving by air (where you have only one piece or 20 kilos of baggage allowed) check ahead to see if FedEx/Post is cheaper than excess luggage rates. For our last move we packed all our shoes and sent them ahead in a box. Cost half of what we would have paid at the airline. And that made room in my suitcase for open food items like expensive truffle oil and toiletries that I didn't want to throw out.